Focus
Consultancy is the educational advisory arm of the company Fenton and
Associates Ltd which is owned by Christine and Michael Fenton.
Dr Christine
Fenton is the lead consultant for Focus Consultancy and has
served the
tertiary education sector for 18 years. She has had many roles from
teacher and mentor to contract scientist, as well as senior executive
roles in the Tertiary sector including General Manager, Head of
Faculty, and Executive Director.
She
is a highly motivated, experienced and
focused senior executive with excellent evaluation and analysis
skills. Christine is innovative and critical as well as being
approachable and able to bring out the best from people.
In terms of her philosophy she combines coaching with vision, working
towards identifying and using peoples strengths.
Christine specialises in educational leadership,
curriculum design and approvals, as well as academic systems including
quality assurance policies and procedures.
She has expert
knowledge of Tertiary Education Commission and NZQA reporting,
programme approval and auditing requirements. Christine also has expert
knowledge and experience of preparing for External Evaluation and
Review (EER) events, with a number of clients successfully achieving
EER category 1 status.
Michael
Fenton is
a scientist, multiple-award-winning educator, public speaker and highly
regarded lecturer, with a focus on quality teaching
at a national and international level.
Michael has taught
and is skilled in all areas of science and mathematics, as well as
robotics and game
design. He is a digital
technology specialist familiar with teaching Computational Thinking and
coding, as well as a curriculum designer
with plenty of experience in instructional design for face-to-face and
online learning by distance. Michael is
known
throughout New Zealand for leading teacher professional learning and
development in Science and Mathematics teaching.
Michael and Christine were finalists in the 2015
Prime Minister's Education Excellence Awards - Excellence in Leading
category. The Open Polytechnic Primary Science Teaching and
Primary Mathematics Teaching qualifications are taught by this
husband and wife team. Michael took a lead role in the design of the
programmes, design of the courses and wrote most of the content.
National List MP Chris Bishop said "I’ve been privileged to visit
the Open Polytechnic to see their online science and maths teaching
courses first hand, and I know how impressive they are. The best thing
is that the programme enables teachers to study while working, allowing
teachers to put what they learn online into practice almost
immediately."
Michael continues
to build
and invent his own amateur science equipment and robotics systems. In
recent presentations Michael challenges some of the
extraordinary claims being made about the benefits of digital
technology and the Maker culture, wondering if 'celebrity' presenters
are distracting teachers from designing engaging and authentic learning
opportunities in science and mathemtics. Michael has
also worked
with a number
of organisations to write and deliver workshops exploring assessment,
moderation, differentiated learning, authentic science and mathematics
teaching
strategies as well as the appropriate use of digital technologies and
eLearning. He has supported organisations with their applications for
MBIE "Unlocking
Curious Minds" contestable funds, provided feedback to the draft
Digital Technology curriculum and supported teachers implementing
change in schools as
part of the Science Teaching Leadership programme on behalf of the
Royal Society.
